How tough is Anchorage firefighter Ben Schultz? That is what he says he found out over the last several months after a devastating fall from a ladder in June in Anchorage.
"I'd say the biggest positive is that I've seen the worst part of my life and seeing how I can overcome that," Schultz said while recovering in Omaha, Nebraska. - PUB DATE: 4/20/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ktva.com
The recent firing of Henry County’s fire chief, Nish Willis was met with almost unanimous disapproval from members of the public and multiple county commissioners at Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting.
Willis was terminated on March 21 without a specific reason cited other than “end of appointment. - PUB DATE: 4/19/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Henry County Daily Herald
A firefighter-paramedic with a volunteer fire company on New York's Long Island has died in the line of duty.
According to a post on the Facebook page of the Greenlawn Fire Department, firefighter-paramedic Kent Stillwagon, 52, died while on duty early Tuesday morning.
The department offered no specific details on the incident other than saying it happened around 1:27 a. - PUB DATE: 4/19/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse
The nightmares still sometimes rouse Brian Cristofono from sleep.
Even now, nearly two years after the last calls for help came in, ghosts from his days as a firefighter and paramedic are tough to shake. Babies he couldn’t save. Parents he struggled to comfort. Crash victims beyond reviving.
“They leave scars,” said Cristofono, 42. - PUB DATE: 4/19/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
Onset firefighter Marc Granato lay unconsciousness in a raging storm, both boots knocked off his feet.
Speeding away during the March 2 nor'easter was the person who struck the 25-year-old in a hit-and-run. Running toward Granato was Onset Fire Lt. Justin Harrington. He’d seen many similar crashes. They never ended well. - PUB DATE: 4/19/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Village Soup - Wareham
It was a scary moment for a local fire chief when he found himself fighting a fire inside his own home early this morning.
Several fire departments responded to the house fire on State Road 104 in La Porte County.
No one was hurt, but the home is a total loss.
We spoke to the fire chief for the Pleasant Township Volunteer Fire Department. - PUB DATE: 4/19/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WSBT-TV 22
For about 10 minutes, Emergency Services District 1 firefighters Jessilyn Davis and Lt. Brannon Stengel found themselves surrounded by a brush fire April 11 in western Travis County. The winds, which had shifted toward them, and 20 percent humidity that day only made matters worse. They tried to stay positive, but Stengel said in the backs of their minds, they thought they had come face-to-face with the blaze that would take their lives. - PUB DATE: 4/18/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Austin American-Statesman
A judge has sentenced the former fire chief of the Coventry Fire District to three years of probation and ordered him to repay nearly $200,000 for fraudulently receiving retirement benefits.
Paul Labbadia, 52, of North Providence, pleaded no contest in January to three counts that he filed false documents to obtain a public pension. - PUB DATE: 4/18/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPRI-TV Providence 12
Firefighters are breathing a sigh of relief after a nearly year-long struggle.
The Mattoon Fire Department will have to hire a handful of new firefighters. It's after a judge ruled that the city violated their contract last year.
The fire department is supposed to have more than 30 firefighters, but right now they're at 24. - PUB DATE: 4/18/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCIA & WCFN-TV CBS 3 Champaign
People turn to firefighters for help during all kinds of emergencies, but this one might actually be a first.
Wayne Township firefighters woke up in the middle of the night to a woman frantically pushing their doorbell.
"As many times as the doorbell on the firehouse was pushed, the firefighters were quite certain that something bad was going on outside," said Wayne Township Fire Capt. - PUB DATE: 4/18/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTHR-TV NBC 13 Indianapolis
A firefighter from Texas is being lauded for his heroic efforts after he helped pull a fellow passenger back inside a plane when she was sucked outside during an emergency landing Tuesday in Philadelphia.
According to the Daily Mirror, Celina firefighter Andrew Needum was nearby when debris from the engine explosion on Southwest Airlines flight 1380 ripped a hole in the window where 43-year-old Jennifer Riordan was sitting. - PUB DATE: 4/18/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse
The memories of the blast five years ago that robbed Kirk Wines of his friends and first responder colleagues remain vivid as ever, but he keeps them filed neatly away. The amiable owner of West’s Old Corner Drug Store stays busy filling prescriptions, chatting with customers and minding his emergency pager as a captain of the West Volunteer Fire Department. - PUB DATE: 4/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Waco Tribune-Herald
New questions emerged Monday about the FDNY’s denial of 9/11-related disability benefits to a retired firefighter who labored at Ground Zero and then suffered severe psychiatric illness before dying in a mental hospital.
Joe Battista spent months at the World Trade Center site after the 9/11 attacks and developed serious health issues, and severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder that led to repeated hospitalizations. - PUB DATE: 4/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News
Nick Reeder's life was just coming into focus last week--four years ago, he found Amanda Sawyer.
"We met on an online profile, yeah and we had a blind date and were inseparable after that date. It was love at first sight definitely," said Nick Reeder.
Nick says she did it all--mother, worker, wife and she loved that he was a firefighter, even decorating their home with fire memorabilia. - PUB DATE: 4/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KABC-TV ABC 7 Los Angeles
Just as fire departments are getting used to working with millennials, another generation is coming along. This generation is significantly different from their predecessors and will require some adaptations in leadership and management for them to contribute to their fullest.
The newest generation, born after 1995, is just now entering the workforce. - PUB DATE: 4/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1
The Auburn fire chief has chastised the Oxford town manager for allegedly prohibiting the use of any town emails or social media to distribute a retirement party flyer for the Oxford fire chief.
A retirement party for Oxford Fire Chief Sheri R. Bemis is scheduled for 6 to 11 p.m. Saturday at the Auburn Elks Lodge, 754 Southbridge St. - PUB DATE: 4/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Ed Hutchinson became Greensburg's fire chief when Harry Truman was president and retired 53 years later, and through those decades he was a community leader whose impact stretched far beyond the city's fire halls.
“He was not only a fire chief, but a great community servant. I am stunned today,” Greensburg Mayor Robert Bell said Sunday of Hutchinson's death Sunday morning at age 96 at Excela Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg. - PUB DATE: 4/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
The controversial program that pays veteran Los Angeles police officers and firefighters nearly double for the last five years of their careers received a flood of new enrollees in February, records show.
The rush to join the Deferred Retirement Option Plan, or DROP program, coincided with a Times investigation in February that found the program, which was created in 2002 to keep veteran officers and firefighters on the job, allows participants to file workers' compensation claims and then take extended injury leaves at nearly twice their usual pay. - PUB DATE: 4/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
The FDNY’s “zero tolerance” for drug abuse has gone up in smoke.
Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro has quietly abandoned the department’s once-trumpeted policy calling for the firing of anyone caught using illegal or prohibited substances, The Post has learned.
In the last month, 26 firefighters who had tested positive on urine tests since 2016 were returned to full duty, insiders revealed. - PUB DATE: 4/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post
Two Arlington firefighters and a Arlington Water Utilities crew member were injured while responding to a gas leak that occurred Sunday afternoon in central Arlington.
All three were transported to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. The extent of their injuries is not known.
According to Arlington Fire Department spokesman Mike Joiner, Arlington Water Utilities crews were repairing a water line leak at the intersection of Ditto Avenue and Dugan Street. - PUB DATE: 4/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fort Worth Star-Teleram
